More than 70 active wildfires have been burning across the US, including nine in California and two in Nevada, according to National Interagency Fire Center data reported on by CNN. As these various fires continue to rage across the western US, driving evacuations and burning down homes, the news outlet says a “particularly dangerous situation” could play out with the Davis Fire in Nevada. The article cites climate scientist Dr Daniel Swain, who called the scale and intensity of the fires in California “truly remarkable”. According to the news site, the researcher notes that the fire dubbed the Bridge Fire “in particular, has now become yet another in a long list of recent examples of California wildfires doing seemingly ‘impossible’ things” – clearing the San Gabriel Mountains in a single day. The Associated Press says three major wildfires in southern California have expanded dramatically, injuring at least a dozen people. In reference to the fires, Axios says “climate change is increasing the severity of record wildfires and making heatwaves far more likely and intense, research shows”. Similarly, the Washington Post says “factors linked to climate change, such as increased heat and dry conditions, have been a ‘key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires’ in the western US” – citing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). According to the Los Angeles Times, the fires in southern California are set to get worse over the autumn due to a combination of the “arrival of hot Santa Ana winds”, two years of overgrown vegetation and a trend towards worse autumn fires in a warmer climate.

Meanwhile, a storm known as Francine made landfall as a category 2 hurricane in Louisiana, according to NBC News. Around 340,000 customers were left without power in Louisiana, and some parts of the New Orleans area experienced flash flooding, the news site says. In ramping up to a category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 100mph, the storm underwent “rapid intensification” – which is “one of the key ways that a warmer climate is impacting hurricanes”, CNN reports. However, the New York Times reports that Francine has since weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm. With the event expected to cause more storm surges and flash flooding in southern Louisiana, the newspaper notes that “climate change, largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, increases the chances of heavy rainfall because warmer air can hold more moisture”.

Against this backdrop of extreme weather, there is continued coverage in many major publications about Tuesday night’s presidential debate between the Democrat vice president Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger, Donald Trump. The New York Times says Harris “hedged” on climate change – acknowledging it is a problem and pointing to the current administration’s clean energy subsidies, while also “boast[ing]” that “under the Biden administration, gas production has reached record highs”. Trump, the newspaper says, “dodged the question entirely”. According to E&E News, Harris “embrace[d]” domestic fossil fuels, stating that the US “cannot over rely on foreign oil”. The Guardian says that “yet again, the unfolding climate crisis was largely overlooked” during the debate. It notes that Harris’s support for oil and gas – and notably for fracking – “raised eyebrows among some environmentalists”. A CNN article is headlined: “Harris and Trump kept talking about pumping more oil. There’s a problem with that.” It explains: “For all the candidates’ talk of promoting fossil fuel production, it’s not clear that America needs drastically more oil. (And climate scientists say that’s the exact opposite of what the planet needs).” An editorial in the Wall Street Journal criticises Harris for “tak[ing] credit for oil production that her administration has tried to limit”.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that the German Foreign Ministry has responded to Trump after he said during the debate that Germany had tried phasing out fossil fuels but “within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants”. According to Politico, the ministry wrote on Twitter/X: “Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal and nuclear plants.”

Forest fires in Brazil have soared in the past weeks, reaching more than 152,000 outbreaks, 103% higher than 2023, the nation’s Folha de Sao Paulo reports. According to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) cited by the outlet, fires happen against a backdrop of record drought and criminal activity suspicions. Meanwhile, in a comment piece for the newspaper, Ricardo Mussa, the chair of B20 Brazil energy transition and climate task force from G20 Brazil’s presidency, says that the private initiative “has an active role in speeding up the decarbonisation plan within G20”. He says Brazil “needs to accelerate” the creation of a national decarbonisation plan to deliver to the COP30 climate summit in Belém next year. Meanwhile, on a visit to areas that have been affected by fires, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to pave a road that environmentalists and some in his own government say “threatens to vastly increase” the deforestation of the Amazon, the Associated Press reports. Reuters says Brazil has asked the EU “not to implement regulations in its deforestation law at the end of the year as scheduled and asked for it to be revised to avoid hurting Brazilian exports”.

Forest fires are also ravaging the Peruvian rainforest, satellite images show, according to Peru’s El Comercio. Users on social media warned of a big plume of smoke coming from the rainforest, which was later confirmed by satellite images, the publication says. Meteorological engineer Cristóbal Pinche tells the outlet that fires are related to dryness and cloudiness in the region.

Elsewhere, political scientist Fabián Echegaray reflects in a commentary for Argentina’s Clarín that, given Argentina is seeing warmer and wetter winters, “people’s habits [in response to] climate change should change”. He cites a global survey finding that Latin Americans experience high levels of environmental worry but less willingness to make changes, such as flying less or cutting meat. Finally, columnist Lorena Rivera writes for Mexico’s Excélsior about a survey conducted in 18 G20 countries, showing that 72% of respondents are in favour of making it a criminal offence for governments and companies to allow harmful activities to nature. Rivera argues that “if the survey were to help push the criminalisation [of those actions], it could be an important step towards environmental justice”.

The UK government has reached a deal to provide £500m of support to the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot, south Wales, but “up to 2,500” jobs are still expected to be lost, according to the i newspaper. The government will provide £500m towards the construction of a low-carbon electric arc furnace at the site, with the plant’s owner, Tata Steel, paying £750m, the newspaper explains. The government frames this deal as an improvement on previous efforts, with approximately 100 extra jobs saved, better redundancy payments for workers and an enhanced training package for those looking to get new jobs outside the industry, it notes. The Times, which places the figure for job losses higher, at 2,800, explains that “while more environmentally friendly, the ‘electric arc furnace’ that will be developed is less labour-intensive”. BBC News says Tata has also agreed to look into future investment opportunities, potentially including the production of wind turbines in south Wales at a new plate mill. BusinessGreen says that, as well as trade unions “lament[ing]” job losses, experts have also warned that the UK is in danger of losing primary steel production capacity – as electric arc furnaces melt scrap to produce recycled steel. It quotes Laith Whitwham, UK industry lead at climate think tank E3G, who said that under the current plan the UK would be the only G7 nation to lose this capacity, which “could lead to a reliance on high-carbon steel imports”.

An editorial in the Daily Telegraph is titled: “Port Talbot’s green job losses may only be the start.” It says the plan “will leave the UK dependent on imports from countries that couldn’t care less about decarbonisation” and concludes “it turns out that decarbonisation does mean deindustrialisation”.

Several UK news outlets, including BBC News, have picked up on a call from 10 former Conservative environment ministers – including four former environment and farming secretaries – urging the new Labour government not to cut back a fund that pays farmers to take environmental action on their land. The Environmental Land Management Scheme (Elms) was proposed by then-minister Michael Gove – who is among those issuing the call – as a replacement for the EU’s controversial common agricultural policy (CAP), the article explains. The statement is published as a letter in the Daily Telegraph, which responds to earlier reporting in the Guardian that the government is planning to cut the Elms budget by £100m per year. The former ministers, including Andrea Leadsom, Therese Coffey and Theresa Villiers, write: “Using Brexit freedoms, the previous Conservative government delivered a once-in-a-generation transformation of how we support our farmers.” The Daily Express cites research by the RSPB that suggests the cut would mean at least 239,000 fewer hectares of “nature-friendly farmland”. Mark Spencer, a former farming minister who also signed the letter, tells MailOnline: “The threat from farmland flooding caused by climate change is growing and we should be doing all we can to support our farmers at this challenging time.” Meanwhile, the Times reports that new data shows there has, in fact, been a £358m underspend on nature-friendly farming over the last three years. It cites analysis that suggests a 10% cut to the £2.4bn budget for these schemes would mean agriculture falls at least 15% short of its emissions reduction target for 2030. It adds that “cuts could also drive some farms out of business”. The Press Association quotes National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw, who has called for an increased annual agriculture budget “to the tune of £5.6bn UK-wide, with £4bn in England”. He said such an increase is essential to give farmers the confidence to invest in measures such as climate-friendly farming, the news outlet adds. (This comes after the NFU warned that its plan to reach net-zero for farming by 2040 may not be achieved.)

In more farming news, shadow environment and farming secretary Steve Barclay has penned a piece for the Daily Telegraph – also written up as a news story – accusing the Labour government of not understanding the countryside. He writes: “Instead of taking a common sense approach and looking into innovative ways we could utilise urban spaces, [net-zero and energy security secretary] Ed Miliband has pushed ahead with his plans to pave over the countryside with solar panels.” However, another Press Association piece quotes the NFU’s Bradshaw telling journalists, at a parliamentary reception to mark Back British Farming Day, that he does not consider individual solar farms to be a threat to the country’s food security.

Croatia, Greece and Portugal are among the EU member states that have claimed to spend EU funds on climate-relevant actions that are in fact “not as green as described”, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors, reported by Euronews. The auditors say some states have “inflated potential climate contributions to some projects, such as clean urban transport and forest climate adaptation” from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, created as part of the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, according to the outlet. The EU pledged to spend at least 37% of its €700bn Covid-19 recovery fund on measures to address climate change, according to Reuters. While countries say they have exceeded that goal, with €275bn – or 42.5% of the funds – allocated for climate so far, “that figure may be overestimating the EU’s green spending by at least €34.5bn”, the news outlet says. It lists “spending on IT systems and salaries” as examples that have been mislabelled as “green”.

A notice from the Chinese government says China’s two separate renewable energy trading systems, the “green electricity certificates” (GECs) – a certificate that allows “green” power to be traded – and “China certified emission reduction” (CCER) – a voluntary emissions reductions market – would be connected from 1 October 2024, energy news outlet BJX news reports. (Differences between GECs and CCER can be found in Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.) The notice says renewable energy projects should “avoid benefits from both” and apply for only one of the schemes, adds the outlet. However, within the next two years – a transition period –  solar and wind will not be included in the CCER system, according to the outlet. 

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, is “setting up a nationwide test of vehicle-to-grid charging to see if the country’s massive fleet of electric cars can be used to smooth out peaks and troughs in electricity supply and demand”. Economic news outlet Yicai reports that China has released “national standards for carbon footprint accounting”, which aims to standardise “carbon management in key areas, such as basic energy, raw materials, and exports”. An article by the state-run newspaper China Daily says that the new standard is “a significant step forward” and fills a “gap in the country’s system of general standards”. The draft of China’s Energy Law has been “submitted for a second review”, economic news outlet Jiemian reports.

Meanwhile, following a meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and Spanish leader Pedro Sánchez, Spain says that it has signed a deal with China to build a $1bn plant to manufacture electrolysers, the machinery used to produce green hydrogen, Reuters reports. The Financial Times reports that Sánchez says that Spain is “‘reconsidering’ its position on EU tariffs” on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) and that it is “important” to find a “compromise” between the EU and China. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post says that Canada has signalled that “it is likely to impose further tariffs soon on Chinese batteries, tech products and critical minerals”. 

Finally, Chinese financial media Yicai reports that Typhoon Yagi, the “second-most powerful storm to ever hit China”, has caused “at least $11bn of damages” in China’s Hainan province. China Daily says that China and Norway have agreed to “establish a dialogue on the green transition” and cooperate to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. 

In Kenya’s Nation, Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Climate Change Negotiators, reflects on a recent meeting of African ministers in Cote d’Ivoire where the discussion focused on land degradation, desertification and drought. “As I listened to speaker after speaker call for urgent, meaningful and just actions…I wondered what the future of this great continent would look like if we do not succeed in addressing the twin threats of a looming climate catastrophe and a debilitating financial crisis,” he writes. Mohamed says that ministers at the conference emphasised that the upcoming COP29 UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, must be a “finance COP” – with developed countries “provid[ing] leadership” on climate finance. However, he says it will also be vital for them to recognise the “particular and emergent needs” of African countries, particularly the “unsustainable debt burden” facing many of them. Mohamed also mentions other priorities for African countries at COP29, such as further action on the adaptation, loss and damage and just transition workstreams.

Cameroonian economist Vera Songwe, who co-led an influential expert group into international climate finance, has written an article for the Financial Times in which she says problems with the global trade in carbon credits “must be fixed”. She writes: “Despite recent controversies, carbon credits continue to enjoy a bedrock of international support. Ten west African nations recently reiterated support for projects that generate carbon credits and the critical role they play in meeting climate, nature and finance needs.” She says that, despite efforts to improve integrity, “the fact remains that voluntary carbon markets are fragmented and do not have to comply with uniform global standards”. Given this, Songwe says policymakers should make efforts to “implement uniform interoperable standards”.

Meanwhile, the Independent has an op-ed from a former foreign secretary, president of the International Rescue Committee and brother of the current net-zero secretary – David Miliband – outlining his case for the UK’s climate finance strategy. “Where the previous government was known for what it demolished (the world-leading Department for International Development), the new government can build. And nowhere is that more necessary than in the linked problems of conflict, climate and poverty,” he writes. Miliband says more than two-thirds of conflicts are happening in climate-vulnerable states. He adds that debt burdens are “syphoning away” resources needed for climate adaptation, particularly in African countries. His proposals include a target for climate-vulnerable, conflict-affected countries to receive 18% of all adaptation finance, taking a more flexible approach to delivery partners and contributing generously to the next replenishment of the World Bank International Development Association.

Writing in the New York Times, climate journalist Robinson Meyer says that, during Donald Trump’s last presidency, his scrapping of climate policies meant US carmakers failed to make their models more efficient. According to Meyer, this meant that Chinese and South Korean rivals overtook the US industry. “Today, the US finds itself badly lagging behind China not just in hybrid and electric vehicles but also in many other crucial industries: solar, wind and battery production, as well as the refining of some minerals,” he writes. Meyer notes that, with Trump once again in the running to be US president, he has pledged once again to scrap climate policies. “Trump’s policies would devastate America’s growing electric vehicle industry. They would allow China to consolidate its control of the world’s electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery industries, and they would hamstring American – or European or East Asian – companies from developing the necessary expertise to compete with China,” he continues. Meyer concludes that the US is “at risk of never learning to produce those batteries and falling ineluctably behind. A Trump victory would help cement that defeat.”

Tree species diversity in boreal forests increased by an average of 12% from 2000-20, a new study finds, but this trend may not continue as temperatures keep rising. The researchers combine thousands of field observations and satellite images to develop a framework for estimating boreal tree species diversity in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Warming “fosters” conditions that can boost boreal forests, which are found in places such as Canada and Alaska, the researchers write. But the new study findings suggest that only warming to a “certain extent” benefits tree species diversity. Rapid or extreme temperature increases are “possibly detrimental” to this diversity, the researchers add.